For Bruce Vilanch, controversy is a laughing matter.

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The writer and comedian is bringing his one man show to The Rrazz Room in Coral Springs on Saturday and he has no plans to shy away from any of those traditionally taboo topics of polite conversation.

SFGN caught up with him on the phone while he hurried to finish up the script for the Producers Guild Awards last weekend. While the Producers Guild is incredibly diverse, he said, it’s also neither televised nor immune from the after effects of the controversy surrounding the Oscar nominations a couple of weeks ago.

“It’s Hollywood,” he said. “It’s the town industry and the city is full of people who don’t want to be branded as racist. It’s a lighting rod for publicity. Nobody understands the nominating process.”

Vilanch, who has also written 25 Oscars ceremony scripts, attributes much of the anger to “sour grapes from people who were eligible but not nominated. That makes it sound petty.”

“There’s certainly a problem in the industry and the Academy is trying to address it,” he explained. “We’re talking about art, not industry.”

He pointed out that while the 20 nominees in the acting categories were white, they were nominated by 1150 actors who are members of the Academy and still more diverse than the other branches, such as the writers and directors who also select the nominees in their professions.

“I’ve written the show 25 times and every year there’s something,” Vilanch said. “This issue just won’t go away.”

He also plans to talk politics. Not surprisingly, Vilanch is a proud Democrat:

“I’ll wind up voting for Hillary like everyone else with a brain. The Republicans are not an option,” he explained.

South Florida audiences should expect to hear Vilanch’s opinions about the current crowd of hopeful Republican candidates.

“They’re all such clowns. You don’t have to say anything, they write their own material,” he said with a hearty chuckle. “And there is Sarah Palin standing up and blaming Obama for her son being a lunatic. Imagine if Obama’s kids were as cracked out as hers.”

Of course, Vilanch will be armed with plenty of dishy Hollywood stories, too, although he warns he is not a conventional stand up comic.

“I’m a storyteller and I’ve been party to a lot of stories,” he again chuckled. “I was a child actor, you know. I never became a child star or we’d be talking from rehab. I love telling these stories about the behind the scenes in Hollywood and the ridiculous jobs I’ve had. It’s so hard to choose now.”

The Coral Springs appearance will be a homecoming of sorts. Vilanch’s grandparents lived in Miami Beach and he vacationed here as a child. Years later, his first job out of college was at the Miami Herald. His 95-year-old mother, who just passed away this year, was a snowbird in Boca Raton.

He sighed, “I’ve often thought maybe I could just pick up a little place there, but life gets in the way.”

The post Bruce Vilanch Talks Showbiz, Politics in Coral Springs first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

NEW YORK, Feb. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Stoli^® Vodka, in partnership with the Key West Business Guild, today announced its second annual Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic – North America’s largest annual LGBT cocktail competition. The mix-off sees bartenders showcase their skill and ingenuity as they battle to be crowned the 2015 Cocktail Classic Champion at the Grand Finale during Key West Pride 2015.

Using Stoli Vodka as their primary ingredient, participants in 14 cities across North America will create an original cocktail for a panel of local celebrity judges, who will evaluate the drinks on uniqueness, taste and appearance. Aside from being crowned the 2015 Cocktail Classic Champion, the winner will ride in the Key West Pride Parade as the Honorary Grand Marshall and receive $5,000 for a LGBT or LGBT-friendly charity of their choice.

“It is an honor to host the Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic, North America’s largest annual LGBT cocktail competition,” said Patrik Gallineaux, the national LGBT Ambassador for Stoli. “Our community’s hard-working nightlife professionals often do not receive the recognition they deserve. It is amazing to see what our nation’s bartenders can do with their imagination, their cocktail shaker and Stoli THE Vodka!”

In partnership with the Key West Business Guild, an organization of LGBT-owned and LGBT-friendly businesses in Key West, the competition will be hosted by Gallineaux and TV personality Jai Rodriguez. It will also feature a panel of celebrity judges including clothing designer Andrew Christian; legendary funnyman Bruce Vilanch; actress and singer LaToya London; and Key West personality and star of the annual New Year’s Eve High Heel Drop, Sushi.

“The LGBT community has some of the most inventive bartenders in the country,” said Matt Hon, executive director of the Key West Business Guild. “Through the Key West Cocktail Classic, they’re getting the opportunity to showcase their creativity and put a spotlight on the community. Key West, especially during Pride week, is the perfect stage to recognize them and the contributions they make to nightlife.”

The cocktail classic will take place at 14 events in the following participating cities:

• Dallas – March 2
• Los Angeles – March 15
• Denver – March 30
• Miami/Fort Lauderdale – April 6
• New York – April 9
• Chicago – April 15
• Washington D.C. – April 20
• San Diego – April 23
• Philadelphia – May 5
• Toronto – May 7
• Boston – May 12
• Vancouver – May 14
• Seattle – May 17
• San Francisco – May 27
• Key West (Finale) – June 13

A maximum of seven bartenders will be selected to participate in each local event. For more information about the Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic including how to apply, rules, guidelines and the full schedule of events, visit www.gaycities.com/cocktailclassic.

The post Bruce Vilanch To Be Judge At Second Annual Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Even in a year-round arts community like South Floridaâ€s, annual theater festivals that materialize, entertain, then vanish ‘til the following year help make the summer season special. City Theatreâ€s Summer Shorts festival, which begins this weekend in the Arsht Centerâ€s Carnival Studio Theater, is the first of those special summer events.
Now in its 17th year, Summer Shorts has evolved from a two-program mini-marathon to a multi-faceted event. This yearâ€s festival includes the program of short plays (nine are on the bill, which runs through June 17), an annual playwrights†conference (set for June 15-17, featuring Christopher Durang and Leslie Ayvazian), a special theater event ( Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays June 21-24 at the Broward Center, starring Bryan Batt and Bruce Vilanch) and programming for kids (a production of the musical The Brand New Kid, which will play the Carnival June 9-17, the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach June 19-22 and Fort Lauderdale Childrenâ€s Theatre June 29-30).

John Manzelli, City Theatreâ€s producing artistic director, says the ongoing evolution of Summer Shorts has to do with location and economics.

“Weâ€re always asking how to take what was a fun theater event…and turn it into a show that belongs in [the Arsht],” he says. “Ideally, weâ€d like a second program, but economically this was the only choice.”

Still, this yearâ€s lineup doesnâ€t skimp on the quality of its plays or the acting and directing talent involved. Manzelli, Mark Swaner and Margaret M. Ledford are sharing directing chores. In the five-person acting company are Carbonell Award winners Irene Adjan, Elizabeth Dimon and Todd Allen Durkin, plus newcomer Katherine Wright and the man who has been in nearly every Summer Shorts festival, Stephen Trovillion.

“A smart producer gets the best people,” Manzelli says. “And Steve [Trovillion] is a staple of the company. Heâ€s the best person Iâ€ve ever seen in this format. He gets this like no one else.”

Adjan, Dimon and Durkin have all participated in Naked Stageâ€s annual 24-Hour Theatre Project, in which short plays get written overnight, rehearsed the next day and performed that evening. Summer Shorts, says Adjan, is different.

“At Summer Shorts, you get time to delve into the plays and the characters, and actually make them full short plays,” she says. “At 24-Hour, you go with your instincts.”

Trovillion, who spends most of his year teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, has become a Summer Shorts fan favorite. The short-play format is the only acting he has done over the past decade, but he has his process down pat.

“You have to work hard and fast, get to the essence of who the character is,” he says. “You find differences physically and vocally. You make simple but big choices, and then you fill it in with whatâ€s real. Finally, you get out of your head so youâ€re actually talking to the other person.”

Durkin, who plays assistant district attorney Doug Feehan on the new STARZ series Magic City, is having his first Summer Shorts experience and finds playing five characters in different genres an interesting challenge. Dimon, a Summer Shorts veteran who is acting in four plays, loves that challenge.

“Itâ€s fun to put yourself out there in different plays. Itâ€s like being in college and going from class to class. The audience sees you, then youâ€re immediately different,” she says.

That variety, says director Swaner, is the spice of Summer Shorts.

“You let each play and playwright have their own rhythm and style, and the audience sees all of that variety,” he says. “Yet itâ€s all performed by the same cast.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/01/v-print/2825669/summer-shorts-not-just-a-few-plays.html#storylink=cpy

The post Reminder: Bruce Vilanch To Star In “Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays” June 21-24 at the Broward Center first appeared on We Got Bruce!.